NPC was honored by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) as a winner of the 2017 When Work Works Award. The award goes beyond work-life programs and includes initiatives that address additional evidence-based aspects of effective workplaces: autonomy; supervisor support for job success; co-worker support for job success; satisfaction with earnings, benefits and opportunities to advance; opportunities for learning; and a culture of trust, respect and belonging. The award is earned after a rigorous assessment that emphasizes the real-life experiences of employees and incorporates national benchmarks of employer practices from the National Study of Employers and the National Study of the Changing Workforce. NPC earned second place among nearly 300 award winners nationally. Learn more.

Pictured: At a recent luncheon, U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR1) greeted employees Juliette Mackin, Timothy Ho, Lara Miyahira, and Charley Jaspera, who accepted the award on behalf of NPC. Lara spoke about her experience as a working mom, noting that on many occasions she has been able to take good care of her children, dog, and relatives thanks to the NPC’s flexibility and generous personal-time-off policy.

New Zealand Drug Courts Are Going Strong

In November 2012, New Zealand began two pilot Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Courts (AODTC). Earlier that year, before implementation, Drs. Shannon Carey and Mike Finigan of NPC Research, among other American drug court practitioners, presented at a conference in Auckland intended to introduce the concept of drug courts and best practices to the New Zealand government as well as many individuals interested in supporting the pilot programs. Dr. Carey recently had the opportunity to visit both New Zealand AODTC programs, now in operation for more than 5 years. She observed that the both AODTC programs were exemplary in following research-based best practices while adjusting protocols to best fit the New Zealand legal system and culture.

﻿The use of a Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand) cultural advisor and Maori cultural practices in the AODTC enhances inclusion and participation. In the Maori language the AODTC is known as "Te Whare Whakapiki Wairua" (The House that Uplifts the Spirit). Pre-court staffing meetings and court begin with a Maori song, and all new participants are welcomed by the cultural advisor in court. The AODTC also welcomes and is inclusive of participant families. A generous amount of time is spent by the team and the judges discussing the success of participants who are doing well in the program. A Maori craftsman has dedicated himself to supporting the court by carving pounamu (necklaces made of New Zealand jade carved in traditional symbols), which are given to participants upon graduation. As of last June, 114 participants have graduated from the programs.

Findings from Study of Oregon Home Visiting Program Points to Increased Support for Enrolled Families

Healthy Families Oregon, the state’s largest child abuse prevention program, offers ongoing support to new parents based on a family’s strengths and culture. A recent study by NPC and Portland State University comparing HFO-enrolled families (1,438) to a randomly assigned control group (1,289) showed that (at 2 years post-enrollment) families in the HFO group were more likely to be connected to important family stability supports (such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and were more likely to be enrolled in substance abuse treatment. Further, when the treatment group was restricted to only those who received at least some home visiting, the effects on service utilization were more pronounced, indicating that home visiting increases the engagement in family support services. Results found no difference in substantiated child abuse reports between program and control group families. However, mothers in HFO were more likely to have an unsubstantiated report of child maltreatment, suggesting a surveillance effect for unsubstantiated reports. These findings suggest that HFO services are providing key connections to important supports for families. Learn moreabout this second in a three-article series examining the randomized study of the HFO program, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children’s Bureau.

Staff Spotlight: Marny Rivera

Marny Rivera recently left Alaska to join NPC as a Senior Research Associate. She is a criminologist who most recently served as a faculty member at University of Alaska Anchorage and before that at Southern Oregon University. Marny has over 10 years of experience researching and evaluating substance abuse prevention and treatment programs, problem-solving courts, the co-occurrence of substance abuse with child maltreatment, and violence against women. Marny is motivated to understand the root causes of public health problems (i.e., substance abuse and crime) including the impact of trauma on mental and physical health. She looks forward to focusing on research and evaluation and is especially interested in evaluating treatment courts. In her free time Marny enjoys running and Pilates. As a foodie, she has begun enjoying the many varied tastes of Portland—and other Oregon cities.Learn more about Marny.

Featured Top 10 Drug Court Best Practice for Cost Savings: When Team Members Receive a Copy of the Guidelines

In this ongoing article, we present the Top 10 drug court best practices, one practice at a time with a brief discussion of each practice. In this issue, we present the #7 practice in the Top 10 best practices for reducing cost. (See the full publication on best practices.)

Drug Courts where team members are given a copy of the guidelines for sanctions had 72% greater cost savings due to decreased participant recidivism.

Interestingly, the results also showed that providing participants with written guidelines was not related to recidivism or cost outcomes. Therefore, it appears that guidelines are more crucial for the team in determining its responses to participant behavior. Written guidelines can provide a range of potential team responses to participants’ behaviors, including therapeutic responses, incentives, and sanctions, rather than a one-to-one response for each behavior. This range of potential responses serves to remind team members of the variety of team responses available while also providing some consistency across participants. Programs without written guidelines have a tendency to use a smaller number of sanctions and limit themselves to the incentives that they are most familiar with, particularly jail (which is not recommended).